The Bank of Ghana (BoG) says employees linked to fraud incidents within financial institutions should not automatically be treated as perpetrators, as investigations must determine their actual involvement before sanctions are applied.

The Head of the Fraud Investigations and Reporting Unit at the Bank of Ghana, Eric Cab-Beyuo, said financial institutions are required to conduct proper investigations and give affected staff a fair hearing before taking disciplinary action.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he said the process is guided by the legal principle of audi alteram partem, which requires that both sides of a matter are heard before a decision is made.

“When it comes to fraud, when a fraud incident occurs, there’s something that in the legal circle they say audi alteram partem. You need to give fair hearing to the other side,” he said.

Mr Cab-Beyuo explained that the focus of fraud investigations is to establish the root cause of an incident and determine the specific role played by individuals involved.

“When a fraud incident occurs, the institutions are supposed to investigate to find out the root cause. So it’s not in all cases that you have this staff implicated,” he stated.

According to him, some employees become implicated because of negligence or failure to follow internal controls, rather than because they directly benefited financially from the fraud.

“These staff have not directly benefited from the fraud incident in terms of monetary value. Some were due to a certain form of negligence which got them implicated,” he said.

He added that disciplinary committees assess cases individually, with sanctions depending on the findings of each investigation.

“Upon investigation and going through the disciplinary committee, there would be some sanctions that will be meted out — and not necessarily a dismissal,” he noted.

Mr Cab-Beyuo, however, disclosed that a significant number of employees implicated in fraud cases have faced severe disciplinary action.

He said available data indicates that about 75 per cent of staff linked to fraud incidents were dismissed, reflecting the seriousness with which financial institutions treat such breaches.

“That is how we can have some 75 per cent have been dismissed out of that total number,” he said.

The BoG official stressed that while institutions must take firm action against fraud, disciplinary measures must be based on evidence and the individual responsibility of each staff member involved.